RMC desal bills fuzzy on work for county

A review of bills from RMC Water and Environment for work on the ill-fated regional desalination project raises a number of questions, including exactly what the county would be getting for its money.

In addition to listing nearly $700,000 of charges for work on the project from early January through late August 2011, RMC's invoices to the county Water Resources Agency include a long list of tasks and other items for which the project manager is seeking payment.

But it's not clear what portion of the work is being charged to the county water agency because the invoices include tasks done for all three project partners: the county, California American Water and Marina Coast Water District.

The $400 million desal project was intended to provide a replacement source of water for Peninsula customers facing a state-ordered cutback in pumping from the Carmel River by 2016.

RMC's unpaid bills represent the bulk of about $1.43 million in project-related charges the agency is asking to pay through a Cal Am credit line. A formal request to lift a cap on borrowing from the company is scheduled to go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

On Friday, Supervisor Dave Potter, board chairman, said the request would be pulled from the agenda and postponed indefinitely. Potter said the cessation of the project, after Cal Am backed out last week, means there is no credit line. Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie confirmed Thursday it is no longer available.

Public records request

The RMC invoices were provided by the county water agency under a public records request filed Jan. 10 by The Open Monterey Project. They include millions of dollars of work on the project beyond what is being charged to the agency, including efforts on behalf of both Cal Am and Marina Coast.

Gillian Taylor, a director of The Open Monterey Project, said the organization sought the records in the interests of "accountability, transparency and meaningful oversight of taxpayer dollars."

"We want the public and the board to know the facts before this money is authorized and spent, because these are taxpayer and ratepayer dollars," Taylor said. "That is why we authorized our attorney to obtain the public records."

But the invoices only list the agency's portion of charges under general-task categories and offer little detail regarding what specific tasks were charged to the agency.

The invoices were added Friday to the board report on the credit line request.

The records provided by the agency in response to the request did not include any contracts involving RMC's subconsultants, who billed nearly $110,000 for their work to the agency through RMC. Nor did they offer any record of communication between the water agency's former general manager, Curtis Weeks, and RMC regarding oversight, billing or payment of the work.

There were also no records of any claims filed by the county against RMC or any discussion of filing a claim.

Bills bonanza

According to RMC's invoices, the firm amassed nearly $460,000 in desal project charges before the supervisors even approved use of the Cal Am credit line in March 2011. However, RMC didn't submit invoices for its work until late April through mid-May.

Despite the $286,000 credit line cap set by the supervisors in March, and despite agency officials ordering a halt to work on the project's brackish source water wells and pipeline that month, RMC kept up its bills, charging about $238,000 more for work done from late April through late August.

RMC stopped virtually all work on the project in August because of the water agency's failure to pay the firm's bills, and the project partners went to mediation.

Potter noted that the county and Cal Am have agreed to continue working together to resolve the remaining issues related to the desal project, including outstanding bills. He said he is no longer willing to allow the use of more agency funds to pay project bills.

According to agency records, the county has spent nearly $4 million on the project so far, about half of that on legal expenses.

Potter said the board had not yet considered going after RMC's $5 million in liability insurance, intended to indemnify the county and its desal partners from "wrongful acts" by the firm.

RMC paid former county water board member Steve Collins $160,000 for his work on the desal project while he was a public official and while the firm was working for Marina Coast.

Principal Lyndel Melton said Collins and Weeks assured him county officials had approved the arrangement and that there would be no conflict of interest.

RMC later won a $28 million deal to manage the project, and Collins is facing felony conflict of interest charges for being financially interested in three key desal project contracts.